


Way Less Sad

by akuli



Series: i knew you once [3]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Hurt No Comfort, OTV TIME MEGALUL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:29:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29534784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akuli/pseuds/akuli
Summary: rubs my little gremlin hands together here we go again.(sincerest apologies to anyone who came from the western au fic and has seen this influx of ccs they don’t know and are just going what the fuck. i simply have not been as interested in dsmp/writing it as of late.)anyways. grabs feugh by the throat. here is your boy. i hope you enjoy <4(title is taken from the ajr song. go stream it immediately.)
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: i knew you once [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2070849
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4
Collections: victors' tower (stories from floor 6)





	Way Less Sad

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Piranesi (7AlpacasInATrenchcoat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/7AlpacasInATrenchcoat/gifts).



> rubs my little gremlin hands together here we go again. 
> 
> (sincerest apologies to anyone who came from the western au fic and has seen this influx of ccs they don’t know and are just going what the fuck. i simply have not been as interested in dsmp/writing it as of late.)
> 
> anyways. grabs feugh by the throat. here is your boy. i hope you enjoy <4
> 
> (title is taken from the ajr song. go stream it immediately.)

There are very few things that survive the passage of time. Nature is destructive, protective of the beauty that has not yet been ruined by the strangers that have evolved, somehow becoming stronger, in a way, as the centuries have taken stone that they’ve assigned value to. 

Music survives. It is preserved in the ocean’s tide, in the incomprehensible language of toddlers, in nails making quick, tapping noises against wood, in wordless greetings and celebration too pure to be put into words. District 11 is music’s keeper, because the Capital can never get something so joyful right.

(The Capital is the fate worse than death the authors of books Scarra never really reads are referring to, he thinks.)

He doesn’t like the way the man on the stage is looking at him. He’s not really looking at Scarra and he knows it, but he doesn’t like it any less that he’s doing it to everyone. To his whole District of sound, who protests by not making a single sound after the video ends. Propaganda, Edison tells him it’s called. 

He reaches into the glass bowl, making a show of it. Scarra’s angry at him, at the cameras mounted on stage, lense sweeping across the crowd to capture the exact moment, the expression on the poor child’s face like it’s a movie. 

“ Edison Park!”

Scarra’s heart drops.

He looks at Leslie, who does not have tears in her eyes yet and makes his decision.

“ I volunteer as tribute.”

(Peter is the one to hold Edison back as Scarra makes his way through the crowd. It does not part for him; he brushes shoulders with strangers, people he doesn’t quite know the names of. There will be no music that echoes through the streets tonight. This is how District 11 says goodbye.)

* * *

His stylist is the first person to ask his name.

Scarra, he tells her, because his name is all he has anymore.

* * *

Floor 2 is quiet when Scarra arrives.

(Some days, when he’s nearly thirty and it’s a testament to how fucked this lifestyle they live is that he’s genuinely surprised he’s lived so long, for a moment, Scarra wishes for silence. He always remembers the first year, Yvonne and her anger, Poki and a responsibility that she’s both grateful for Scarra reliving her of, but feels strangely like failure, and Mat, who he’ll admit he’s a bit scared of at first. His wish is never granted, and he’s better off for it, in the end.)

Lily comes after him. She’s petite, and Scarra’s scared in the way one feels in the presence of a small animal, until she speaks.

(She’s the one who really saves them. Her and Toast.)

Floor 2 is quiet until Scarra finds Yvonne curled up between Mat’s legs, head resting in his chest. Floor 2 is quiet until Lily drags Michael down from the fifth floor of the victor’s tower and forces him to meet the people who’ve been keeping her funny. Floor 2 is quiet until Toast sings on Lily’s stream, and Scarra can’t help but to hover in the frame of the door and listen. Floor 2 is quiet until it’s occupied, lived in by people who’ve resigned themselves to enjoying the moments where they feel human again.

* * *

**April 9th**

He’s in the kitchen, attempting to make something edible for lunch because Austin’s filming on the Floor below Jack’s when Poki walks in. She’s looking down at her phone when she enters initially, still in her pajamas, although when she registers that Scarra is in this space with her, she picks up her pace, moving to sit behind the counter facing him. “ Yo, Scarra, have you seen this clip?”

“ You’re gonna have to be more specific than that, Poki,” He replies, brushing his hands against the cotton of the apron he’s wearing in preparation for Poki to offer him her phone,” if this is about-“

“ It’s not about you, don’t worry,” Poki emphasizes the sentiment with a physical gesture, a wave that doesn’t reassure him in the slightest. Scarra’s not one to pry, so he doesn’t look at Poki’s screen as she scrolls through the apps she’s left open, eventually presenting the screen to him, settled on a YouTube video that’s frozen in place, “ this smaller streamer proposed to his girlfriend on stream, and it’s cute as fuck.”

He clicks the triangle play button before he gets a good look at either of their faces.

(It’s Edison. He’s older, and he’s wearing a suit with no tie, something his stylist would be horrified by, but he looks good. He looks healthy. And Leslie is there too, hair the color of peonies, and they both start crying at some point but they’re smiling like they can’t help it.)

“ Scarra? You okay?”

“ I’m fine,” he says, and it’s a complete lie because Poki has to pry his fingers off the protective case of her phone, “ what’s his name?”

“ Edison,” She responds, turning her phone off without breaking eye contact, “ are you sure you’re alright?”

“ Yeah,” He’s already preparing to leave, and he’s going to have to talk about it later, he knows it from the way Poki’s eyes follow him even when he turns away, “ send it to me. I’ll watch it later.”

“ Okay,” she replies rather unconvincingly.

(Poki doesn’t leave)

* * *

He spends the next week combing through all the public information he can find about Edison. He finds out Leslie is a streamer too in his meticulous research.

(Edison Park is twenty-two years old when he proposes to Leslie Fu. He’s alive. He’s alive, and he’s getting married, and he’s successful enough to survive, to pursue a career that makes him genuinely happy. Scarra thinks about being seventeen and feeling the ground move beneath him and wishes time travel was real, so that he could tell that kid what they were fighting for.)

The first stream he’s able to properly open comes on the seventeenth. 

Edison's funny. He’s animated in a way that makes Scarra’s want to grab him by the shoulders and scream about how this life isn’t a choice for the rest of them, but his smile, and Leslie’s brief appearance (to bring him food) allows him to bring a swift end to bitterness he didn’t know he held in conjunction to his old friend until now. He’s not dressed as formally as he was in the clip, a simpler button-up and jeans. 

(There are still shallow crevices under his lower lashline, and calluses on his thumbs. Scarra misses having those imperfections. It was one of the first things the Capital took from him when he arrived, the texture of his skin, the only physical reminder he had of his roots.)

If he types in chat, his message will be buried in a matter of seconds. He doesn’t even want to announce himself at first, but people start mentioning him in the chat, inadvertently forcing his hand.

**scarra** donated $5: congratulations on the engagement! i’m a bit late, but better late than never, am i right?

The chat leaves no room for subtlety. He didn’t expect any less, really, but it’s funny to watch.

**fergAlicious** : WRGHTB

 **multifandomGal** : cut the cameras

 **keene_ethusiast** : SCARRA????

When Edision comes back from his fan-mandated hydration check, the lines of text are flying by so quickly he can’t ignore it. Not to mention his viewer count has skyrocketed, and nobody seems to have raided him. “ Solstices, why’s chat?” He says, pulling the padded chair out and sitting in it, dragging down the software that contains all of the important aspects of this career he’s pursued.

and five-thousand people watch Edison's face cave. “ Scarra?”

**scarra** : missed you, old friend.

**Author's Note:**

> give me clout it’s nearly pisces season babyyyy


End file.
